Avalon, GSK Extend Collaboration with Startup Focused on ALS – Page 2

the book” on funding from Avalon X, Lichter said. Future investments with GSK will be made from Avalon XI, which Avalon is currently raising from its limited partners.

“We had to have a new agreement with the new fund,” Lichter said. “So we said we like this deal, we want to keep it going, and we sought slightly better terms.”

Iron Horse Therapeutics was founded to advance a promising breakthrough in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by scientists in Maurizio Pellecchia’s lab at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in San Diego.

Pellecchia, associate director of translational research, has been focused in recent years on identifying potential therapeutic compounds that target certain proteins known as ephrins and their receptors (Eph receptors), which play an important role in tumor growth and cancer cell metastasis.

In a surprising discovery, researchers in Pellecchia’s lab have identified a related protein, EphA4, which appears to promote ALS-related neuro-degeneration. The disease is less severe in ALS patients with reduced production of EphA4, and the patients live longer.

The scientists found that interfering with EphA4 activity appears to protect motor neurons from degeneration, and to decrease the severity of the disease and prolong survival in ALS animal models.

The team also identified small molecules that appear to inhibit EphA4 activity, and the Sanford Burnham Prebys institute licensed the technology exclusively to the Avalon-GSK team behind the formation of Iron Horse Therapeutics.

Founders of Iron Horse Therapeutics take ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Oct. 12, 2015

As a way to mark the beginning of the company, the founders of Iron Horse Therapeutics took the ALS “ice bucket challenge” last month near the company’s new offices in La Jolla. The participants, from left to right, are:

—Damien McDevitt, who heads GSK’s West Coast pharmaceutical R&D business development office from the company’s satellite office in La Jolla.

—Jay Lichter, Avalon Ventures partner and CEO of COI Pharmaceuticals

—Maurizio Pellecchia, associate director of translational research at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

—Perry Nisen, CEO of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

—David Campbell, CSO of Iron Horse Therapeutics and CSO for small molecules at COI Pharmaceuticals

—Sandy Madigan, SVP for business development at COI Pharmaceuticals

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times. View all posts by Bruce V. Bigelow